"Let my frock," said brother Michael, "answer for its own sins.
It is worn past covering mine. It is too weak for a shield,
too transparent for a screen, too thin for a shelter,
too light for gravity, and too threadbare for a jest.
The wearer would be naught indeed who should misbeseem such
a wedding garment.

But wherefore does the sheep wear wool?
That he in season sheared may be,
And the shepherd be warm though his flock be cool:
So I'll have a new cloak about me."





CHAPTER II


Vray moyne si oncques en feut depuis que le monde moynant moyna
de moynerie.--RABELAIS.


The Earl of Huntingdon, living in the vicinity of a royal forest,
and passionately attached to the chase from his infancy,
had long made as free with the king's deer as Lord Percy
proposed to do with those of Lord Douglas in the memorable
hunting of Cheviot. It is sufficiently well known how severe
were the forest-laws in those days, and with what jealousy